The package of the first 30 measures to stimulate food production in our country was recently approved, including the procedure for the slaughter, consumption, and commercialization of cattle meat by agricultural producers.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- The Official Gazette published Resolution Number 139/2021, which establishes as requirements for the slaughter of bovine cattle to be duly registered in the Land and Livestock Control registries and comply with the legal provisions established for such purposes; comply with the commitments of the state commission established in the contracts for the purchase and sale of milk and meat, as the case may be.

APPROVED MEASURES

Propose the new model of state and business agricultural management at all levels; the decentralization of competencies, and the strengthening of the territorial agricultural and livestock production base.
Consider individual agricultural producers as part of the agricultural production base.

Define the products that can be substituted from the current import nomenclature for food and raw materials; the quantities and financing required for a medium-term program that takes into account the increase in the cost of production inputs.

Identify, through global organizations, a financial mechanism that will make it possible to make more efficient use of scarce foreign exchange and use these import sources to finance domestic food production, to the extent possible.

Prioritize the financing of agriculture for inputs that ensure production, as well as the increase of irrigated areas, according to the Strategic Plan until 2030, with the participation of the national industry.

Evaluate external sources of financing: credit, commercial, governmental and foreign investment for the transformation of agriculture and its innovation processes.

Accelerate the creation of the Agricultural Development Bank. Create new banking products.

Apply financial treatment to a group of cooperatives that are currently showing losses and have possibilities of continuing operations.

Create a debt restructuring plan to review the financial situation of the companies, without waiting for their recovery.

Diversify capitalization opportunities for agricultural cooperatives and producers based on the development of investments, the acquisition of key agricultural inputs, and their profitability under current conditions.

Prioritize investments in productive programs with the greatest impact on import substitution and exports.

Analyze the investments made in the different programs and their exploitation, in correspondence with the capacities that were foreseen in the feasibility studies.

Create opportunities for foreign investors and firms based in the country to directly sell inputs demanded by farmers, with the appropriate fiscal and monetary regulations.

ON PRODUCTIVE PROGRAMS

Consolidate food production at the local level, including urban, suburban, and family agriculture, and livestock modules. Strengthen the development of the mini-industry for the production of products for this purpose.
To recover the state production in the 26 integral pork production, ensuring its food base from by-products of the sugar industry, among others.

Promote meat and egg production in poultry companies.
To implement the 28 measures foreseen for the recovery of the bovine cattle raising, conceived in the Social Economic Strategy.

Authorize the commercialization of beef and self-consumption to producers, after complying with the state order, and as long as they guarantee that there is no decrease in the livestock mass.

Authorize the sale of milk and its derivatives upon compliance with the delivery plan and indicators established by the cattle ranch.
Develop the small livestock enterprise based on creating centers for this kind of species and commercialize this meat in the retail network in foreign currency.

To promote an integral program of medicines, vaccines, diagnostic means, instruments, and bioproducts that support agricultural production.

To develop the design and management of nature and rural tourism products, under local development project modalities in the state companies, cooperatives, and agricultural producers,

OTHER KEY MEASURES

Evaluate the organization, operation, and management model of the cooperative, to ensure its proper functioning with autonomy.

To carry out the contracting process of the companies with the productive bases.

Recognize in the Annual Economic Plan, the agricultural cooperative sector is an actor with similar possibilities of access to resources as the state business system, for production and investment.

Design a system for the training of cadres, which allows the creation of the competencies and skills required for the performance of their functions at different levels.

Improve the system of continuous and post-graduate training of professionals, short-cycle training for technicians, to reduce the deficit of qualified technical force and contribute to greater job stability.

Redesign Science, Technology, and Innovation activities at all levels, strengthening integration with universities, research centers, and the agricultural extension system.

Prioritize by government structures the attention to rural settlements and agricultural communities.

Implement the measures identified for the central government agencies that facilitate or contribute to the productive transformation of the agrifood sector.

Each of these measures will be detailed in future publications.

With information from the Ministries of Agriculture and Food Industry.